I understand Slackware does not have a *modern* package management system, and that dependencies are dealt by the user unless you use a third part tool like swaret.

My question relates to security/bug fixes. Does Slackware put out security fix packages for Slackware e.g. the current release 11.0? Or would I have to track the Current branch in order to to fix security issues with packages?

The question is also the same for bug fixes e.g. say a bug was discovered in kde that causes constant crashing or something and update was put out to fix the issue, would Slackware make this available, or would it be up to me to compile the update etc?

Tracking security updates is not a problem, I would just like to know wether security fixes are put out for the current releases, and if they are, would they be on the slackware mirrors and the main slackware FTP?

Thanks in advance

Michael.

Pat does release security/bug fixes for the stable branch, so just keep an eye on the changelog. They are put on the main Slack FTP site, of course. Some mirrors don't seem to have been updated in a while and for those that do get updated, it might take a few days or so before they get the latest tree. I can't say for sure, because obviously, it depends on the mirror site.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux Distributions - Slackware and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Subscribe to slackware-security. The information is at http://www.slackware.com/lists/

Also look into slackpkg which is downloadable from the mirrors, it does dependency checking and will help you keep up to date.

I would add security fixed packages are placed in patches subdirectory of the main repository tree so keep in sync with its content.

Concerning package management without automatic dependency resolution you need not to worry - updated packages from patches shouldn't bring any new dependencies - they are just fixes the for current ones.

AFAIK, Slackpkg doesn't perform dependency check. It just syncs your packages with those available at the chosen mirror.

It does check for the patches/ subdir, so it will consider patched packages as updates and will upgrade your machine to the patched versions if you tell it to do so.